Clean-up in Aisle 7
by HecateA
Summary: She is an Auror. A strong, perfectly trained, intelligent, capable, elite Auror. And no, she will not be able to get through this grocery shopping expedition without making a fool of herself in front of this man. Oneshot.


**Author's Note: **Enjooooy!

**Disclaimer: **The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

**Warnings: **NA; sexual humour ahead though.

* * *

**Stacked with: **MC4A; Shipping Ways; Hogwarts

**Individual Challenge(s): **Gryffindor MC; Hufflepuff MC; Golden Times; Old Shoes; Trope it Up C (Mutual Pining); Themes & Things A (New Beginnings); Themes & Things B (Risk)

**Word Count: **842

* * *

_**Shipping Wars**_

**Ship (Team): **Nymphadora Tonks and Remus Lupin (Technicolour Moon)

**List (Prompt): **Summer Big List (Shopping)

* * *

**Clean-up in Aisle 7**

Because Mad-Eye was a worry wart who would never admit to how deeply he worried about his protégée, and because she had sprained her ankle a _tiny bit _during a dragon egg trading bust the other day, and because he was in charge of making the schedule for Order business… well, Tonks had all the boring jobs for the next two weeks.

"Oof… Well, at least grocery shopping isn't going to be boring," Kingsley said next to her, glancing over her horrible, no good, boring, boring schedule. "You're going to be doing that with _Remus." _

"Shut the fuck up," Tonks hissed in his direction, trying to be quiet to avoid catching the attention of other Order members. Everyone was dutifully looking over their assignment.

Still, that was enough to send her heart where her stomach should be and her stomach into her throat in some weird internal jigsaw operation. She crossed her arms. "I don't want to go grocery shopping. I'm an _Auror. _I can do more."

"Remus is one of the best and he goes grocery shopping," Kingsley whispered back. "It's just something that has to be done to keep us all from starving in headquarters—a noble incentive, really. Not to mention all those mysteriously ginger kids who keep showing up at the dinner table."

Tonks gave it up but she gave Mad-Eye a _massive_ stink eye as he double checked with everyone at the meeting that there were no scheduling conflicts. He noticed, she could tell because his magical eye dallied on her for an extra second, but he quickly decided not to mind her.

At the end of the meeting, Remus packed up his things and called out to the rest of the Order members.

"You know the drill. Any special requests, mark it on the list on the fridge before 10:00 tomorrow morning," he said.

"Dog biscuits for Sirius," Bill called which led to some rather boisterous laughter and a demonstration featuring a giant dog on the table and a startled and deeply unhappy Molly.

"Get off Sirius, I'm going to be cooking here," she said. The dog jumped off the table and became man.

"I'm clean Molly, promise," Sirius grinned. "No fleas."

"Anymore," Remus said—which sent another bout of laughter through the room.

Order members filtered out or scattered away to other parts of the house. Remus caught Tonks' eye.

"10:00 tomorrow?" she asked.

"10:00 tomorrow," he nodded. "We can meet at headquarters?"

"Sure," she said. She gulped. "See you tomorrow."

"Aren't you staying for dinner?" Remus asked. "Hermione and Ginny were excited to see you."

"Right," she said. "Right, I am. See you… see you then."

"You're a mess," Kingsley whispered to her.

* * *

In honour of her general messines, she crashed the cart into the third shelf of the morning.

"Maybe I can drive the cart?" Remus offered.

"No, you're much better at finding things off the shelf," she said. "I'm a terrible adult, I don't grocery shop."

"If you insist," Remus said, pulling the nose of the cart back into line with the wheels and continuing down the aisle. Tonks couldn't help but watch him walk for a second before pushing the cart in pursuit, and then once they were side-by-side in the quiet supermarket look at his profile…

She crashed into a basket of discount ramen and cursed under her breath.

Remus turned to look at her curiously. His hand self-consciously went to a scar on the side of his face. He frowned.

"Are you looking at..?"

"No!" Tonks said. "No, Heavens no, I promise I wasn't staring at your—umm—at your scar…"

Remus still looked shifty. "If I'm making you uncomfortable, I can ask Alastor not to schedule us together again for…"

"No, I promise, I wasn't, I'm an Auror I've seen plenty of scars—and you're—Merlin, I have no reason to be uncomfortable around you, I'm just…"

"You don't need to make excuses Tonks, I've seen you looking," Remus said. His frowning now looked sadder than concerned or angry now, and Tonks' heart broke as she panicked _just _a little bit harder, because of course she did. This is what years of combat training had prepared her for, after all.

"I was checking you out," she blurted.

Remus flushed a deep shade of red.

She felt herself blush just as hard.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I don't want you to think that there's something wrong, I just, you're quite good looking and you don't act like it so it makes it even harder not to look and…"

These were a lot of words.

"Why don't you drive the cart?" she offered.

"Sure," Remus said quietly.

"And I'll just quickly go drown myself in the lobster tanks," she grumbled to herself.

Oh, wait until Kingsley Shacklebolt heard about _this… _

"We…" Remus smiled a little bit. "Could I stop you from drowning yourself if I promised that we never had to talk about this again?"

"It might just be enough," she said.

But he kept smiling, and she couldn't help but grin back.


End file.
